GDG- RE: Civil War Medical Question

[James Cameron]

<<  The battle over thermometer technology is exemplified by what was 
happening in the New York Academy of Medicine at the time. One professor 
staunchly claimed that "a physician without a thermometer was like a blind 
man walking the streets." Yet another faculty member just as fervently 
declared that when we are attracted to novelty, we lose the way of truth.

        In answer to your question, I suspect that the true number of 
clinical thermometers in use during the Civil War would be had to nail down, 
due largely to 1) where the doctor had studied, 2) what the reigning 
philosophy of medical thermometers was in that school, 3) how long ago he 
graduated, and 4) how current he stayed with new technology.  >>

One thing to keep in mind is that being able to determine a patient's actual 
body temperature was one thing.  Making good use of that information, 
something else.  The CW took place at a time when wound infections were 
taken for granted, and "laudable pus" seen as a sign a wound was healing 
properly.  Few effective treatments existed for treating other infections or 
inflamatory processes.  Physicians could tell when a patient was feverish 
without a thermometer.  Given the state of medicine at the time, the ability 
to determine a patient's exact temperature would probably have been almost 
immaterial to most physicians.

Jim Cameron